The CBC rocket surgeon writer first had "10 million Ukrainian Jews" dying in the Holodomor -- that was quickly corrected.

From Canadian Press:

"He will also travel to one of the world’s most heartbreaking sites at Babyn Yar, where more than 33,000 Jews were gunned down by the Nazis in a matter of days. Up to 150,000 more, including tens of thousands of Roma, were also eventually buried in the ravine."

Writers reminded the various news media who the majority of the executed were --the local Ukrainian population!

Still a problem with "Kiev" and "the" Ukraine. You would think that since 1991 the media would learn?

The apologists and Soviet sympathizers (including, God help us, the President of Ukraine) continue to spout how the Genocide by Famine, the Holodomor of 1932/33 happened in Russia and Kazakhstan also. Newest records show that it was mostly the Ukrainian villages there that were targeted. I'm still waiting for the Russians to hold memorial services for all of their perished population during the famine..... 75th anniv. passed a while ago.... still waiting. I guess it didn't happen to their own people after all, eh? More that enough documentation now, with many documents published, and Yuriy Luhovy's film:

http://wn.com/Holodomor_Ukraine_Famine_Genocide_Documental

http://www.ucrdc.org/Film-Harvest_of_Despair.html

http://cybercossack.com/?p=1518

If even a few readers learn something from Harper's visit to Ukraine, it will be for the good.

Monday, October 18, 2010

The news and the comments on this story just show how naive, how ignorant some Canadians are about the USSR and what harm it did to millions of people and nations. The Canadian Communists were financially supported by the USSR (this came out clearly after 1991), and did great harm in defamation and disinformation against the general Ukrainian community (denial of the Holodomor, fighting its inclusion in the school programs, defamation of Ukrainians in WWII).

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The comments here are also interesting. Over the centuries, European society was "multicultural" only in the sense that other nationalities living within a particular country knew and respected that they were living in that country, made up of Germans, French, whatever. They adapted and learned the language while still keeping their own heritage and ways. The Armenians in Ukraine, the Jews in Italy, etc., etc., maintained themselves and flourished, but they knew that they were in a particular country. What has happened in the late 20th c. is that migrants and former colonials poured into Europe -- and the autochtonous population of each particular country now has a problem with people from "away." In Europe, made up of non-immigrant nations, the new immigrants should and must respect and adapt to their new homes.

In the U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand -- the New World, everyone other than the aboriginal populations is an immigrant, a newcomer. Yes, the British or the French or the Spanish settled first, and did so to great detriment and destruction to the native population. But the colonists were immigrants. As each new wave of immigrants arrived, they adapted to what was established.

The U.S. "melting pot" never really melted -- St. Patrick's Day, Scandinavians in Minnesota, Italian food, Tex-Mex, the Latino culture -- still very much alive. In Canada, no one has really figured out what being "Canadian" really means -- it sure means something different in Quebec vs Manitoba. Canadian = British? For a long time it seemed so, but tell that to the Ukrainians and Mennonites who settled the Prairies. Yes, they learned English, and were forced to adapt to English ways to survive and progress. Talk to them about being told to "talk white." But many of the "others" retained and developed their ancestral culture while becoming "Canadian." In Quebec, Ukrainians are tri-lingual. People can live in two worlds, and be very patriotic Canadians or Americans while still being very strong supporters of their ancestral homelands. You try telling a Dauphin or Gardenton Manitoban, here for six generations, that his/her Ukrainian Christmas Eve traditions are not Canadian! There are degrees of assimilation. Adapting, learning the language, learning the new ways but retaining your heritage create a well-rounded individual and citizen. Forgetting your roots is detrimental to the person and the culture.

To compare European and North American multiculturalism is wrong. In the Old World, each country is its own, and anyone else living there must respect the original culture and nation, and accept that this is where they have settled into. In the New World, there must be respect for the established culture, but it is not as set as in the Old World. Two or three centuries in a new place is not millennia in the homeland.

At the same time, as citizens, each immigrant group in Canada or the U.S. is passionately patriotic, and you have rabid Ukrainian Republicans and Ukrainian Democrats, or Ukrainian NDPers or Liberals or Conservatives.

This issue is not black-and-white, but the Germany's Chancellor Merkel is right.

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ABOUT ME

I'm a writer, translator, and speaker, mostly on things Ukrainian. People often turn to me for information on Ukrainian traditions, costumes, culture, and all related "stuff." If I don't know, I try to find out. On this blog, will share links to my various articles on (hopefully) interesting topics.
I retired from the University of Manitoba Libraries in September 2010. Have been trying to catch up to myself every since (the story of my life)....

Prairie Fire -- "Echoes from Ukrainian Canada."Special issue on Ukrainian Canadian literature, October 1992. Co-initiator of issue and member of guest editorial board.One non-fiction work and one review.

Spirit of Ukraine:500 Years of Ukrainian Painting.Winnipeg:Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1991.Co-editor (one of four) and translator.

Carpathia Credit Union -- 50 Years of Service to the Community.Winnipeg:Carpathia Credit Union, 1990.Co-author with Dr. Halyna Muchin.

Writer of three anniversary brochures for the Rusalka Ukrainian Dance Ensemble of Winnipeg:1972, English text; 1979, Ukrainian text; 1982, Ukrainian and English text.

Over 400 published articles in numerous publications -- The Globe and Mail, Winnipeg Free Press, Prairie Fire, University of Manitoba Alumni Journal, Prairie Garden, Canadian [Antiques] Collector, Forum: a UkrainianReview, and -- columnist for The UkrainianWeekly (Parsippany, New Jersey).

SOME OF MY LECTURE SUBJECTS

Why We Do What We Do:Origins and Symbolism of Ukrainian Traditions

Baba Was Right All Along: Ukrainian Folk Medicine

Songs Your Mother Should Never Have Taught You?Erotic Symbolism in Ukrainian Folk Songs

Konopli - Hemp in Ukrainian Tradition and Life

Perogies on the Prairies: from Ukrainian Village to Mainstream Canada

Origins of Ukrainian Traditions

Ukrainian Wedding Traditions in Manitoba (and general)

Pysanky - Ukrainian Easter Eggs and What They Mean

Ukrainian Christmas

Symbolism in Ukrainian Songs and in Folk Art

Free-for-all re Things Ukrainian

My 15th Folk Art and Culture Tour of Ukraine in 2012

The dates for 2013 are Aug. 22-Sept. 8. Please book early.

Folks are asking about this tour -- word of mouth is good! But if you are interested, act quickly to be sure to go. You'll need to reserve with Martha Banias at The Great Canadian Travel Company, and also be sure that your passport is not within 6 months of expiring at the time of the trip!